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PlayStation (Games)

Submission + - MonkeyPaw Games bringing Japanese classics to USA (thekartel.com)

Submitted by almehdaaol
almehdaaol writes: It looks like import gamers will have it easier as new company MonkeyPaw Games plans to bring over a slew of Japanese titles to all three of the major console's digital distribution stores. The first set of games will be PS one imports for the PlayStation Network (PSN). In a JoyStiq interview, MonkeyPaw president and former Hudson Entertainment president John Greiner also discusses projects with the XBLA, Virtual Console and Nintendo 3DS in the future.
Games

Submission + - Civ 5 will let you import and convert Civ 4 maps (bitmob.com) 1

Submitted by bbretterson
bbretterson writes: From an interview Bitmob conducted with Civilization 5 Lead Designer Jon Shafer:

You can import Civ 4 maps into the world builder and convert them into Civ 5 maps, including all the units and cities and stuff on it — the conversion process will just do that for you automatically. We’re hoping that the first week Civ 5 is out, people will use that function and port all of the Civ 4 stuff over to Civ 5, so everything will be out there already.
The Internet

Submission + - The Fastest ISPs in the U.S

Submitted by adeelarshad82
adeelarshad82 writes: PCMag recently put internet browsing speeds to test to see which ISP was the fastest. The result was based on a quarter million tests which were run between May 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010 by over 6,000 users. The test was carried out using SurfSpeed which takes into account the complete, real-world download time of a web page to a browser. According to the results Verizon's FiOS took the top spot as the nations fastest ISP, with a SurfSpeed score of 1.23 Mbps. Interestingly though, off all the regions where Verizon's FiOS is available it's dominance is only seen in Northeast and West, where as Cox's and Comcast's cable service dominated in the south region. Moreover Cox's and Optimum Online's cable service also dominated over AT&T's fiber optic service in the nationwide results with surf SurfSpeed of 1.14Mbps, 1.12Mbps and 1.06Mbps respectively. The bottom of the table mostly consisteny of DSL service providers with the lowest speed of 544 Kbps from Frontier and going up to 882Kbps by Earthlink. Other interesting facts noted in the test were that the broadband penetration was the highest in Rhode Island and lowest in Mississippi, where as the average internet bill was the highest in Delaware and lowest in Arkansas.
Google

Submission + - Google/YouTube Defeat Viacom in $1 Billion US suit (reuters.com)

Submitted by Yungoe
Yungoe writes: Google and YouTube are victorious over Viacom in a $1 Billion (US) lawsuit over copyright infringement. According to the ruling:
"Mere knowledge of prevalence of such activity in general is not enough," and "The provider need not monitor or seek out facts indicating such activity."
Naturally, Viacom says they will appeal.
Google

Submission + - Google Spy-fi Timeline and Investigation Overviews (p2pnet.net) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google's sneak view Street View advertising hook has been a major centre of controversy ever since it reared its ugly head. But there are so many reports and so much Google counter-spin, there's a distinct danger of not being able to see the wood for the trees.
However, "Epic seems to have a semi-decent time line of events on gargoyle streetview and it's mass invasion of communications privacy", says a Reader's Write.
It does indeed.
"Many countries around the world have launched investigations of Google Street View", it says in the intro, going on:
"The number of investigations increased dramatically once it was determined that Google was collecting Wi-Fi data in addition to digital images. The purpose of this page is to provide an overview of the various investigations. We will update the page as information is received. Please send updates to streetviewwatch@epic.org."
And:
"When Google began the Street View project in 2007, many privacy concerns were raised, but the debates focused almost exclusively on the collection and display of images obtained by the Google Street View digital cameras."
But "It turns out that Google was also obtaining a vast amount of Wi-Fi data from Wi-Fi receivers that were concealed in the Street View vehicles. Following independent investigations, Google now concedes that it gathered MAC addresses (the unique device ID for Wi-Fi hotposts) and network SSIDs (the user-assigned network ID name) tied to location information for private wireless networks. Google also admits that it has intercepted and stored Wi-Fi transmission data, which includes email passwords and email content. As of June 18, 2010, investigations are going forward in 18 countries and five states in the US."
The collection is worth a look, and to get you started, below are Epic summaries of recent reports centering on the scandal
Power

Submission + - Solar's Great Leap Forward (technologyreview.com)

Submitted by TravisTR
TravisTR writes: Suntech CEO Zhengrong Shi made China a powerhouse in photovoltaic technology--and became a billionaire in the process. His next ambition: to make solar power as cheap as conventional electricity.
Privacy

Say No To a Government Internet "Kill Switch" 433

Posted by CmdrTaco from the terrible-ideas-make-me-sad dept.
GMGruman writes "In the name of national security, the feds are considering a law that would let the government turn off the Internet — or at least order broadband providers and ISPs to disable access. InfoWorld blogger Bill Snyder explains why this is a bad idea. Does the US really want to be like China or Iran?"
Firefox

Firefox 3.6.4 Released With Out-of-Process Plugins 261

Posted by kdawson from the bye-bye-crash dept.
DragonHawk writes "Mozilla Firefox 3.6.4 went to general release today. The big new feature in this release is out-of-process plugins (OOPP). This means things like Flash, Java, QuickTime, etc., all run in separate processes, so when Flash decides to crash, it won't take your browser out with it. If Flash starts consuming all the CPU it can find, you can kill it without nuking your browser session. I've been using this feature since it was in the 'nightly build' stage, and it was still more stable than 3.6.3, just because Flash was isolated." And reader Trailrunner7 supplies another compelling reason to download 3.6.4: "Security researcher Michal Zalewski has identified a problem with the way Firefox handles links that are opened in a new browser window or tab, enabling attackers to inject arbitrary code into the new window or tab while still keeping a deceptive URL in the browser's address bar. The vulnerability, which Mozilla has fixed in version 3.6.4, has the effect of tricking users into thinking that they're visiting a legitimate site while instead sending arbitrary attacker-controlled code to their browsers."
Google

Submission + - Sprint HTC EVO 4G Video Calling (evdoinfo.com)

Submitted by evdotorrey
evdotorrey writes: Video demonstration of how video calling works on the Sprint HTC EVO 4G using Qik. This actually works over 3G unlike the iPhone 4's Facetime feature, which requires WiFi connectivity.
Government

Submission + - Biden to file sharers: 'Piracy is theft' (cnet.com)

Submitted by suraj.sun
suraj.sun writes: Do people commit theft when they share unauthorized copies of film and music over the Internet? U.S. Vice President Joe Biden thinks it is.

"We used to have a problem in this town saying this," Biden told reporters Thursday at a press conference in Washington D.C. "But piracy is theft. Clean and simple. It's smash and grab. It ain't no different than smashing a window at Tiffany's and grabbing [merchandise]."

Biden spoke to the media alongside Victoria Espinel, the U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator, to introduce the government's strategy on the protecting ( PDF: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/intellectualproperty/intellectualproperty_strategic_plan.pdf ) the country's intellectual property.

Espinel issued a report that included more than 33 recommendations, such as cooperating with foreign governments to go after foreign-based pirate sites.

CNET News: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20008432-261.html
Google

Submission + - Google Voice Opens To All (wifitalk.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google Voice is now open to anyone in the US, removing the need to search for an invite.

Heading over to the Google Voice site allows people with a US IP address and a US phone number to sign up for an account. Non-US IPs are blocked, and non-US based phone numbers are prevented from being attached to Google Voice (with the one odd exception of the 403 area code of southern Alberta, but there are some ways around the geoblocking part of it anyways.

Submission + - Arrests for selling poison-ware in Spain (elpais.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Spain's FBI equivalent has arrested the management of a software company (link is in Spanish) for selling custom software to small and medium companies with "controlled errors" that resulted in the software bombing on a predetermined date. They would then charge for fixing the problem and press the client into buying a maintenance contract. Over 1,000 clients were affected.
Power

Carbon Nanotube Batteries Pack More Punch 163

Posted by CmdrTaco from the coast-to-coast-at-most dept.
cremeglace writes "Researchers at MIT have come up with a new way of making batteries from carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are attractive materials for battery-making because of their high surface area, which can accept more positive ions and potentially last longer than conventional batteries. Instead of this design, the MIT researchers introduced something new — using chemically modified carbon nanotubes as the positive ion source themselves. For now, the new batteries can power only small devices, but if the method can be scaled up, the batteries may provide the power needed for applications like electric cars."

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